On Thursday, Forbes hosted its fifth annual Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy under the theme “Moonshots—Big Bets for Social Change.” The exclusive event brought together 200 of the world’s leading philanthropists, social entrepreneurs and business leaders for a critical discussion on how to apply wealth and resources to solve today’s most intractable problems. Forbes turned the lens on the audacious thinkers, entrepreneurs, inventors and scholars who are proposing and initiating these radical ideas, creating philanthropic solutions to change our world. Royal Bank of Canada was a presenting sponsor, and McKinsey & Company was the Knowledge Partner. [Read More]

On May 26, six renowned Bay Area chefs and more than 100 guests came together for a night of food and social impact in honor of Acumen and our investee, BURN, a producer and distributor of highly-efficient, affordable cookstoves in East Africa. [Read More]

There is article after article about why businesses and investors should seek new ways to be more inclusive of women in their business models. But what we’ve learned at Acumen, where we invest in business that solve problems of poverty, is that leaders of social-purpose businesses are already doing this, and perhaps there’s something we can learn from them. [Read More]

New York, NY – Acumen, the nonprofit global venture fund, announced today the launch of Acumen America, a portfolio of American social enterprises focused on tackling poverty within the United States. Since its founding in 2001, Acumen has invested $101 million to build nearly 100 innovative enterprises addressing the problems of poverty in Africa, South Asia and Latin America. Now, after 15 years, the organization is bringing its impact investing model to the U.S. to help address the biggest issues facing the nearly 47 million people living in poverty. With the support of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Barclays and The Hitachi Foundation, Acumen is building a portfolio of U.S. companies with a focus on health, workforce development and financial inclusion. [Read More]

On April 12th, Acumen and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship hosted a workshop in Oxford, England with representatives from large corporations and smaller social businesses from around the globe. At the workshop, entitled “Beyond Dialogue,” we asked: How can we build business models that truly serve the poor through collaboration among corporations and social enterprises? We wanted to see what large corporations and social enterprises could learn from each other to build businesses that are not only scalable and financially viable but also inclusive of poor and marginalized communities and environmentally sustainable. [Read More]

We are excited to announce our partnership with IKEA Foundation to expand our work in bringing off-grid energy solutions to the world’s poor. Over the last decade, Acumen has invested more than $17 million in 15 companies across East Africa, India and Pakistan to build the largest portfolio of off-grid energy companies serving the poor. Working across every rung of the energy ladder, these social enterprises have provided tens of millions of people with access to energy and helped them to save more than $1.7 billion in energy-related expenses while offsetting more than four million tons of CO2. [Read More]

Acumen and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Colombia announced today the first investment in a joint $4 million initiative aimed at generating rural economic growth in Colombia through private-sector investments. Called the Investing for Peace Fund, or Invirtiendo Para la Paz, the fund will direct capital and debt investments through Acumen into early-stage companies that demonstrate the capacity to have widespread impact on the country’s marginalized, poor rural populations. The first investment of the initiative, in the amount of $1.15 million, will be made in Cacao de Colombia, a producer and marketer of premium chocolate and cocoa grains that sources cacao—the raw material for chocolate—from smallholder farmers affected by Colombia’s long history of armed conflict, drug trafficking and particularly high rates of poverty. [Read More]

Acumen announced today its new investment in Aarusha Homes, a chain of professionally managed hostels catering to the growing migrant population in India’s cities. The company, which provides migrant students and workers with affordable temporary accommodation, is helping address the country’s urban housing shortage while also improving education and employment outcomes amongst the migrant population. [Read More]

Acumen, the global social impact organization, announced today its acquisition of the award-winning Research and Impact division of SolarAid, the international nonprofit and leading impact practitioner in the solar energy sector. In acquiring SolarAid’s research arm, Acumen builds on its decade of investing in off-grid energy, further deepening its understanding of the energy needs of low-income populations while measuring the social impact of newly electrified individuals and households. Acumen began investing in off-grid energy solutions in 2007 and today has the largest portfolio of companies committed to serving the poor. [Read More]